Left All Alone
by TurkWriter
Summary: Karin worries after Ichigo leaves her behind in his room.


A/N: Ichigo must have found it really awkward having dinner with Karin after he left her alone in his room, don't you think?

Disclaimer: This fic is made by someone who obviously does not own Bleach.

The temperature outside was warm enough for her to be wearing a tank top, but Karin had not felt this cold in a long time. Hugging her knees as she leaned against the wall of her brother's room, she took another look down at his… corpse? It was the closest word she could find to describe her Ichi-nii's body, lying motionless on the bed.

It had been at least an hour since he had left her, brusquely apologizing to her before jumping out of the window in his Shinigami body. Karin bit her lip; that couldn't have been her older brother, could it? Ichi-nii had never been the type to leave her when she was in danger, which she most certainly was in now. It was not like the previous physical dangers that she had encountered, the ones that Karin was beginning to remember clearer each day, but an emotional collapse. Horrible things were happening to the people around her and she was being left out of the loop. She wasn't sure how she could tell something was happening as there was no real evidence, but she could feel it in her bones.

Although she wouldn't confess it to anyone, Ichi-nii wasn't the only one going through hard times. She could no longer sleep well at night. As she would lie in bed, listening to Yuzu's peaceful breaths from across their room, horrifying thoughts would roam around Karin's head. At first, she had passed the images off as strange dreams caused by the stress of daily life; she was growing up and next year she would be starting Mashiba Junior High School, the place where Ichi-nii had gotten into fights every day. But soon Karin couldn't help but feel the dreams were not what they seemed. Her normal dreams had never been recurring, never become clearer as she thought them over. And she soon began to realize that she could not be dreaming when she was, in fact, awake.

The first "dream" had started out rather humorous. Ol' Beardo had been sitting at the kitchen table, bemoaning the fact that his son may have grown stronger than him, while Yuzu sympathetically put ice over his bruise. Then before she knew it, her father was bleeding and unconscious on the floor and Yuzu was screaming and being pulled through the air by a vague disturbance in the air. Karin would run after her and soon find herself being thrown onto the kitchen table. A huge hole would appear in the wall as she gingerly rolled off the table and onto the floor. Each night, Karin would yell to herself, 'Go save Yuzu!' But her legs wouldn't listen and she would inevitably feel her body fall to the ground. She'd drag herself up the stairs, still crawling, and to Ichi-nii's room. She remembers (remembers? No, that can't be right) begging him to do something. Was it to get away? Was it to save her father and sister? Or was it a selfish plea to save her? As she groaned her request out, she would feel something next to her. She does not remember that part of the dream well but she remembers feeling something cold, not cold like the feeling she feels now but an icy coldness of power. And, as odd as it may sound, the feeling was a dark color. It was a purple or black feeling, right next to her face as she lay on the ground.

Karin prided herself on her practicality and would usually have just told herself that it was just a stupid dream. But soon more came. She'd remember images of a little boy watching in horror as a large man repeatedly stabbed his mother right in front of his eyes. She'd see the dark brownish-red liquid seep into the white rug on the floor as the boy cried out for the woman. Then she'd be in a cemetery, being pinned to the ground herself as a girl her age watched and as Yuzu was strangled, once again being pulled through the air by something large that she could only see slightly. Then she would see a monster attacking that large best friend of her brother's. She remembers being on the huge boy's shoulders, screaming as they tried to get away. What had Kanonji-ossan, Jinta, and Ururu called that sort of thing? Was it a Hallow? Yes, it must have been. But none of those things could have happened. She had never been in a room as someone was killed. And hadn't Ichi-nii told her that she had simply been sleeping that day? She would have taken the last "dream" as a coincidence (even if she had begun to remember seeing/feeling another color after the large boy dispatched the Hallow) but then things had started happening to her that she couldn't explain.

She was beginning to feel things, much like the icy purple color she had felt from the first dream/vision/memory. She had walked with Yuzu to the store where Jinta and Ururu apparently lived for groceries one day. The moment she had stepped in, she had felt dizzy on her feet. Her throat had become dry as different sensations seemed to strangle her. The largest one, the one that was drowning her, was a flood of crimson, one that made her feel like breaking down right there. The only reason she had not fallen to the ground was because that feeling was soon followed and muted out by a calmer one. Telling her sister that she would wait outside, Karin had immediately run out to collect herself.

After that, she began to feel these kinds of things more often. She could now define some people by the colors she felt when she saw them. Yuzu was always the easiest to pick out, probably because they were so close. As they played or did homework together, Karin would often see her faintly emitting a light bluish color that reminded her of sunny days with a few white clouds in the sky. When she'd sit at the dinner table, she would always be able to block her father's sparring punches (he had decided she needed to be started on the same "training" as Ichi-nii) because it would always be preceded by huge flashes of royal blue. When she'd run around town fighting the Hallows (she still couldn't remember exactly what they were called) with the Karakura Super Heroes she'd feel explosive off-whites and harsh blacks from Ururu and Jinta respectively and a flashy but much less impressive redness from Kanonji-ossan. But she had paid it little mind. These were people she knew fairly well and maybe it was just her spiritual power growing. She had not taken it too seriously until she had visited Midoriko's house with her sister a week ago. She had been playing a video game while the other two girls discussed some boring subject when the doorbell had ringed. She paid no attention as Midoriko opened the door to her apartment. She paid no attention when Midoriko began blushing and stammering. She paid no attention when she allowed someone in and told them to wait a moment. Karin had actually had little idea that someone else was in the room until a much deeper voice had begun talking.

"That's a great game. I'd play it more but my big sister keeps hoggin' it." She'd looked up and seen a boy who looked to be her brother's age watching the television screen in interest. After a moment, he looked down and their eyes had caught briefly. She blinked in confusion as she felt a bright white light for a moment. Midoriko walked back into the room behind them, a measuring cup in her hand.

"Ah, h-here's the sugar," she had mumbled before shaking hands passed the boy the cup. The boy smiled at her in thanks and waved to the twins before leaving the apartment. Karin put the game controller down. This wasn't going to work. She could not just go around in life being caught off guard whenever some random stranger made her feel colors (colors, for God's sake! You shouldn't even be able to feel those!). So she had no choice.

She went to Ichi-nii. Whenever she would enter the house, she'd feel a huge sweeping of orange that she could just tell was coming from him. Kanonji-ossan had told her that her brother was something called a Shinigami. Karin wasn't quite sure what a Shinigami did but she had a feeling that he, her biggest hero who she'd sometimes see running around in odd black clothing with a large sword on his back and no longer being followed by a short girl in oddly familiar dresses, would have some idea of what was happening to her.

But Ichi-nii had left her. And now she sat in his room, simply looking at what he had left behind. She hesitantly put out a hand to touch a wrist that was becoming cold quickly. No pulse. His body was dead and now that Karin thought over the feeling he unconsciously let out, she realized that he himself was dead. Her brother had gone and gotten himself killed, even though he was still walking around in his body. The thought frightened her greatly.

But not as much as the thought that her father let off that same dead feeling.


End file.
